Apple moth quarantine ordered in Sonoma County

SONOMA COUNTY

Marc Epstein Senior Insect Biosystematist-Specialist for the Sate of California Department of Food and Agriculture displays a Light Brown Apple Moth trapped recently in Northern California that very in color with variations in wing patterns at the State lab in Sacramento. less

Marc Epstein Senior Insect Biosystematist-Specialist for the Sate of California Department of Food and Agriculture displays a Light Brown Apple Moth trapped recently in Northern California that very in color ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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Marc Epstein Senior Insect Biosystematist-Specialist for the Sate of California Department of Food and Agriculture displays a Light Brown Apple Moth trapped recently in Northern California that very in color with variations in wing patterns at the State lab in Sacramento. less

Marc Epstein Senior Insect Biosystematist-Specialist for the Sate of California Department of Food and Agriculture displays a Light Brown Apple Moth trapped recently in Northern California that very in color ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Apple moth quarantine ordered in Sonoma County

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The state has placed a swath of Sonoma County farmland under quarantine after two insect pests known as light-brown apple moths were found near Sebastopol in the past three months.

While the boundary of the quarantine has not been established, it will include apple, grape and vegetable farms and nurseries in the area where the moths were found along Highway 116, also known as the Gravenstein Highway, south of Sebastopol.

Quarantines have been established mostly in wine-growing regions of Sonoma, Solano and Napa counties, but this is the first one that includes apple orchards, said Lisa Correia, the chief deputy agriculture commissioner for Sonoma County.

Correia said one moth was found in a trap in November, prompting the California Department of Food and Agriculture to put up additional snares. Another moth was found Feb. 17 about 3 miles south of Sebastopol, which spurred the state quarantine, she said.

The quarantine will subject growers and other businesses inside the infestation zone to inspections and, if the alien moth is found, an extensive treatment program.

"Apples, grapes and nursery stock will have to be inspected by our office on the premises before they are shipped out," Correia said. "It's significant in that it is a new area for Sonoma County - an apple-growing area - and a new threatened sector of our agricultural industry."

The quarantine is the latest in the broadening and increasingly controversial war against the destructive Australian invader, which was first detected in the state in Berkeley in 2007. Specimens have since turned up in every other Bay Area county as well as in Santa Cruz, Monterey and Los Angeles counties.

Two years ago, the Department of Food and Agriculture sprayed 83,500 acres in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties with a synthetic pheromone pesticide in an attempt to get rid of the pest by interrupting its mating cycle.

The spraying created an uproar among citizens and environmentalists prompting state officials to cancel aerial spraying over urban areas in June.